Friends quietly preserve Quaker tradition

Members of the Irvine Quaker group Orange County Friends, Shirley Price, at left, and Peggy Toledano, join hands after a religious educational study session Sunday. Price has been a member since the groups inception in 1965 and Toledano has been a member for 30 years. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

QUAKERS 101

There are several branches of Quakerism, and not all adhere to the traditional unprogrammed meeting format.

Evangelical Quaker churches, like Friends Christian in Yorba Linda, have a pastor and follow a worship format more familiar to mainline Christian denominations.

Liberal Quaker Meetings, like the Orange County group, follow an unprogrammed meeting format. Many, but not all, liberal Quakers identify themselves as Christians.

Conservative Quakers also adhere to an unprogrammed meeting, but place a greater emphasis on the teachings of Christ.

All branches share a belief that faith is based on personal experience, and share a testimony of peace.

IRVINE – David Kammerzelt was facing an agnostic's dilemma.

The 24-year-old UCI student wasn't much of a church guy. He didn't put much stock in heaven and hell, hadn't listened to a sermon since leaving home at 18, and wasn't interested in anything close to a literal interpretation of the Bible.

But despite his aversion to religious dogma, Kammerzelt – who was raised in an on-again off-again evangelical Christian home – couldn't help feeling that his life lacked something without the fellowship a church can provide.

Is there such a thing as a church for secular humanists?

"It was getting very solipsistic, not having a community of people to talk to, to bounce ideas off of," Kammerzelt said. "I needed human connection. "

Kammerzelt started his journey in 2004, visiting Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and evangelical churches. Then he found a small business center in Irvine that is home to one of tiniest and more unusual religious communities in Orange County: Quakers.

Kammerzelt, now 32, is one of roughly four dozen members of the Orange County Society of Friends, the only unprogrammed Quaker meeting in the county.

The group gathers every Sunday, as Quakers before them have done for hundreds of years. There are no ministers, no prepared sermons and no choir, only a circle of chairs where Friends – as Quakers are called – can sit and reflect.

Eventually, when – and if – the Holy Spirit moves them, a Friend will speak.

But until that happens... silence.

"It's a little bit hard to explain to people," member Shirley Price said. "You have to come and experience it."

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The Religious Society of Friends, as Quakers are more formally known, is a tiny religious minority – even in the Northeast where the concentration of Quakers is at its highest. The most recent estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2008, placed the number of Quakers at around 130,000.

By contrast the same survey placed the number Catholics in the U.S. at more than 57 million. There were even more self-identified Wiccans (about 347,000) than Quakers.

Founded by George Fox in England in the mid-1600s, early Quakers eschewed many of the trappings of contemporary Christian churches for a more austere worship. They did away with formal positions, such as priest and minister, and emphasized a personal connection with God. Their beliefs were deemed heretical, and many Quakers – including William Penn who founded Penn colony, later known as Pennsylvania – fled to the New World.

A division in the early 19th century splintered the group into several branches. One faction moved toward a more mainstream worship format and placed a greater emphasis on the Bible.

There are several local evangelical churches, including Friends Christian in Yorba Linda, that trace their heritage back to Fox and the Friends movement, though they no longer refer to themselves as Quakers.

Another faction continued with unprogrammed worship, and became an umbrella for a wide range of ideological beliefs.

Many, but not all, members of the unprogrammed meeting consider themselves Christians.

"I think there is a lot of disbelief that it is possible to be a Quaker and be someone nominally Christian or even be atheist, or how someone could also be a Buddhist and a Quaker," Kammerzelt said. "It was hard for me to believe too."

Quakers are known for pacifism, and placing a high value on equality, simplicity and unity with nature.

Members of the Irvine Quaker group Orange County Friends, Shirley Price, at left, and Peggy Toledano, join hands after a religious educational study session Sunday. Price has been a member since the groups inception in 1965 and Toledano has been a member for 30 years. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Members of the Quaker group Orange County Friends, David Kammerzelt, and Jeanette Norton, sit in silence and reflection before a religious education study session in Irvine. The church was formed in 1965 and has about 50 members. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Peggy Toledano of Costa Mesa bows her head after a religious educational study session in Irvine Sunday. She has been a member of the Quaker group Orange County Friends for 30 years. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A Quaker Oats container -- appropriately and perhaps light-heartedly -- peeks over the shoulder of a Quaker group member during a Sunday meeting in Irvine. Members place donations in the container. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Members of the Quaker group Orange County Friends Meeting, gather Sunday in Irvine for a religious education study session. They discussed the spiritual power of art. The group was formed in 1965 and has approximately 35 members. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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